The present invention relates to a device and a method for connecting hollow organs and/or sealing wall defects in hollow organs. Such devices and methods are used in the entire field of surgery for connecting hollow organs such as blood vessels or the bowel. These are used particularly in the field of vascular surgery, in particular in the field of bypass surgery in the case of coronary ischaemia for producing proximal or distal anastomoses or also for sealing vascular wall defects. They are used in particular for producing end to end, side to side or end to side anastomoses.
Nowadays, approximately 120,000 bypass operations are performed per year in Germany. The most difficult discipline amongst those are anastomoses on the coronary arteries. It demands a great deal of skill and experience of the surgeon as the vessels here are very small (average arterial diameter 2 mm, vein diameter approximately 4 mm, other transplant diameters for example mammaria 2 mm) and no leakage or suturing to the vascular rear wall must occur.
The manual procedure can be divided into the following operational steps:                1. thoracotomy, sternotomy (opening and cutting through of the sternum);        2. transplant extraction and preparation of the transplant, for example a vein being used as the transplant;        3. putting in of the anastomatic suture with the individual steps of making an incision, preparation of the artery and connection of the transplant opening with the incision opening in the artery; and        4. closure of, the thorax.        
In this procedure the connection of the blood vessels by the anastomotic suture represents the most difficult task.
Because there is a danger in this manual connection of suturing to the rear wall of the blood vessel or of leakage. In addition, operations of this type must take place generally on a non-beating heart, which implies additional traumatisation for the patient due to the use of the heart-lung machine.
DE 43 04 353 A1 and also U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,148 A disclose an endoscopic suturing appliance with a helical needle which has one or more windings. This needle is guided in a rotating manner through the edges of a vascular opening which are both held together by clamps and situated opposite each other. In this manner, a spiral suture is put in, the needle pulling a thread through this suture. Finally, the thread ends are then suitably fixed or tied. The spiral needle is thereby freely guided and actuated by two rollers which are located on a handle-like mounting.